The objective of this paper is to
present a succinct and up-to-date review of the urban sector
in Egypt, with a focus on issues for which there is new
insight or emerging government interest. The two main themes
of the report are the challenges facing the urban sector and
the policy implications at various levels of government.
Some of the reports mains findings are: urbanization in
Egypt takes on forms and processes which are not well

Bangladesh has recorded impressive
economic and social gains since the 1990s. Recent growth has
been at levels close to six percent. The country has doubled
per capita growth and taken large strides toward reaching
many Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ahead of many
comparable countries. Attaining the MDGs calls for
accelerating economic growth to six-seven percent a year.
Accordingly, Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy

The objective of this study, requested
by the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development,
is to assist the government of Egypt in: formulating a
coherent national affordable housing strategy which puts in
place an effective institutional and regulatory framework
that creates the necessary conditions for an efficiently
functioning housing market, devises the incentive structure
needed to promote increased private sector participation in

In this issue: dollar a day revisited;
focus: strategies for developing countries; farm policy in
developing countries: what next? Land in transition: reform
and poverty in rural Vietnam; unpredictable aid;
microfinance meets the market; and development impact of the
war on drugs.

This paper uses two recently completed
surveys of individual entrepreneurs (farmers and
microentrepreneurs) and registered enterprises (agricultural
and nonagricultural) operating in Mexico s rural sector to
provide new evidence about the factors influencing the
incidence of credit constraints and investment behavior. To
measure the incidence of credit constraints, the authors use
self-reported information on whether economic agents have a

This paper assesses the state of
research and examines priorities for future work in the area
of urbanization and growth. This is done by reviewing and
summarizing the findings of five scoping papers covering the
following topics: urban poverty, the political economy of
urban poverty, urban real estate and housing, urban
infrastructure finance, and external assistance for urban development.

This paper compares and contrasts the
performance of rural and urban manufacturing firms in
Ethiopia to assess the impact of market integration and the
investment climate on firm performance. Rural firms are
shown to operate in isolated markets, have poor access to
infrastructure and a substantial degree of market power,
whereas urban firms operate in better integrated and more
competitive markets, where they have much better access to

Beyond the City evaluates the
contribution of rural development and policies to growth,
poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation in the
rest of the economy, as well as in the rural space. This
title brings together new theoretical and empirical
treatments of the links between rural and national
development. New findings and are combined with existing
literature to enhance our understanding of the how rural

This review concludes that for
Togo's urban and peri-urban areas to sustainably grow,
issues of urban governance and development need to be
approached in a comprehensive manner, driven by well -guided
policies developed in partnership with the people to support
Sub-National Government Authorities and Entities(SGAs) in
carrying out their functions efficiently. To meet evolving
challenges of urbanization and decentralization, the

This Investment Climate Policy Note
(ICPN) for Sierra Leone evaluates the country's
business environment by: (i) analyzing barriers to private
sector investment and growth and how they vary among
different types of firms; (ii) benchmarking Sierra
Leone's investment climate and firm performance to that
of other countries; and (iii) providing recommendations to
promote and strengthen the private sector. The ICPN is

In this issue: making finance work for
Africa; focus on water in the Middle East: how to manage
scarcity; fungibility, and the apos;flypaper effectapos; of
aid; do girls gain from migration-induced male absence? The
distributional effects of World Trade Organization (WTO)
agricultural reforms in rich and poor countries;
clientelism, credibility, and policy choices of young
democracies; and entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship.

Half of the moderately poor, and one third of the extremely poor now live in urban areas in Mexico. While cities offer a number of opportunities and specific challenges for the poor, low quality and high costs restrict real access to basic public services. Yet, the urban-rural distinctions need to be seen as a continuum, where depth and characteristics of poverty vary with settlement size. The objective of this report is to inform the design of urban poverty interventions. It is organized as follows.